For the first time ever, SOCMA held its 94th Annual Dinner at the Crowne Plaza Times Square Manhattan in New York, and it was a big hit with both members and guests. More than 360 attended the event, which featured a number of networking opportunities with key leaders in the specialty chemical industry, an Educational Showcase with chemical industry trade press, and dinner recognizing our 2015 Performance Improvement and President’s Leadership Award winners, as well as our donation to the American Chemical Society (ACS) Scholars Program.

Highlighting the afternoon was an Educational Showcase featuring editors and representatives from many of the top chemical industry trade publications.

Moderated by SOCMA President Larry Sloan, guest speakers discussed many of the key issues impacting the chemical industry today. Below is a rundown of our special guests and the topics they discussed:

John Lane, Director of Sales for Speciality Chemicals Magazine, discussed how processes used to overcome price pressures in the agrochemicals sector can be applied to the pharma sector to obtain similar results.

During the Annual Dinner, sponsored by Lynx Investment Advisory, SOCMA President Larry Sloan presented a check for $5,000 to the ACS Scholars Program. ACS Executive Director Dr. Thomas Connelly was on hand for the presentation. This year's scholarship recipient, Matthew Ferguson, a chemical engineering student at Cornell, was unable to attend.

SOCMA President recognized Kate Donahue, President of Hampford Research, Inc., as the 2015 recipient of the President's Leadership Award for Excellence in Advocacy and Jerry L. Jones, a process safety consultant with AIChE, as the recipient of the President's Leadership Award for Excellence in Service.